“You’re not actually breaking the bone. You’re not actually breaking the joint,” said Stubbs.

The noise a joint makes when you pop it, is simply a change in pressure.

“Every joint has a certain amount of negative pressure, like a suction cup,” Stubbs explained. “When you move that joint suddenly in a particular direction, it’s like taking a suction cup off of a mirror. It’s going to make a noise.”

There’s many kinds of arthritis and if you are already showing signs of it, then popping a joint might hurt, but it won’t make it worse or progress the condition. But, would joint popping cause arthritis to begin with?

“As best we can tell, both from experience and medical research (it) does not lead to long-term damage.”

Speaking of medical research, Donald Unger won a Nobel Prize for his in-depth study on himself. He popped the knuckles on his left hand twice a day for 50 years. That’s over 36,000 times. He never touched the knuckles on his right hand. The result? Unger didn’t have any more arthritis in one hand than in the other.

So, verified.

“Knuckle cracking or cracking your fingers, I would call an innocent habit,” said Stubbs.